UW Football: BYU Handles Washington

Riley Stephenson, P/K: He committed murder-by-foot all day long, the evidence: (1) 42-yard punt to UW 27 (out-of-bounds, no return); (2) kickoff, the brutal Polk-slipping-and-not-putting-his-knee-down-but-even-if-he-did-put-his-knee-down-he-didn’t-have-the-ball-so-he-wasn’t-down-but-he-would-have-gotten-5-maybe-10-yards-anyway-so-whatever to UW 2; (3) kickoff (touchback); (4) 30-yard punt to UW 12 (out-of-bounds, no return); 38-yard punt to UW 1 (out-of-bounds, no return); (5) kickoff (touchback); (6) kickoff, return to UW 7; (7) kickoff, return to UW 16; 22-yard punt to UW 14 (out-of-bounds, no return); (8) 44-yard punt for touchback; (9) 47-yard punt to UW 25 (downed, no return). As a result of this homicide it should be no surprise that the best field position UW had to start any drive was their first where they started on their own 27. Their average field position on the day for their 12 possessions was their own 15 (actually 15.25). You can’t win many ballgames that way, even if the offense is humming along (which it most certainly was not on Saturday). To put that number in context, BYU’s average starting field position (they too had 12 possessions) was their own 31 (with two of them actually starting on the UW side of the field).

Riley Nelson, QB: He throws a pretty ugly ball (and the left-handedness makes it look even more awkward), but he’s very clearly a tough S.O.B.

BYU Defense: UW was able to gash them for seven big plays (20-yards or more) and two touchdowns that were not “big” plays (19-yard pass and 9 yard run), but limited UW to only three “big” plays in the second half (43-yard pass, 28-yard run, 34-yard pass). They also stopped UW on two crucial fourth downs, which includes the last UW possession, obviously.

UW Special Teams: After the game concluded, I gave the special teams a D and the only reason they didn’t “earn” an F is due to Erik Folk’s 54-yard field goal (which looked like it might have been good from at least 60). Even if we were to throw out the insane high snap on the punt that resulted in a safety, UW’s special teams were dreadful. They have no semblance of a return game (kickoffs or punts) and it killed them. They couldn’t do anything about the punts that BYU coffin-cornered, but the kickoff returns were embarrassing. Either BYU has better players on its coverage team or UW just has a bad return scheme (in comparison to BYU’s coverage scheme). Things need to change there, and quickly.

As for the UW offense and defense they “earned” a C+ and a B respectively. The offense looked very good at times and very awful at others. Jermaine Kearse is a fantastic receiver in the mold of great NFL possession receivers (his absolute best case scenario is Cris Carter. Great hands, nose for the endzone, not great speed), but he dropped two easy passes, which is not like him. I also did not like some of the play calls on 3rd and short and the one 4th and short play. They ended up going long for low-percentage pass plays and it could be that BYU just had everything else defended, but still, it did not look good. Anyway, there is no way that this talented group of skill-position players should leave any game having scored only 17 points and get shut out in the entire second half. For them, that’s nothing short of terrible. The defense, the supposed weakspot of this team, looked very good for the majority of the game. The big exception was the 48-yard TD to Mario’s brother, which was a coverage breakdown when UW was in a blitz, which, consequently leads to the other huge problem for the UW defense… the complete lack of QB pressure for the entire game. Both Jake Heaps and Nelson had all day to do whatever they wanted to do back there. Of course, BYU’s offense isn’t a vertical one, so we didn’t see any seven-step drops back there or even many, if any at all, five-step drops. They get the ball out quick. Speaking of Heaps, I realize that he was a heralded recruit nationwide, and I saw him play in high school, but I saw a limited guy physically (he looked and looks tapped out to me, and he’s as good as he is because he’s been going to a QB coach for years now. I didn’t see a lot of room for improvement I guess is what I’m saying. However, it would be idiotic for me to stick to those guns. The guy has a really nice arm and will get more accurate as he learns the speed of the game. It’s a shame he’s not playing for UW, but we’ll see if Nick Montana has the same goods. Heaps is a nice player though. A very nice one.

In my preseason predictions, I had UW winning this game (I thought that they’d pull it out 33-27), and now they are sitting at the bottom of a well staring up at a bowl game. As I wrote before, there are so many equal teams in the Pac 10 this year, and almost every team and fanbase has a very reasonable expectation that they should win the Pac 10 or at least contend (WSU does not and I don’t think ASU does either). When Pac 10 play begins, it’s going to be very interesting to see what the spreads of these games are going to be. I wouldn’t be surprised if nearly every game was between 3 and 5 points.

So, while UW lost and the season did not get off to the start that many fans had hoped for, there were some positives to take away from the game, such as:

The continued bad-assery of Chris Polk (running the football, not returning kickoffs). Polk runs angry and runs smartly. He is a tough cat who does not give up on plays. He’s also so compact and strong that it’s very difficult for defenders to get him on the ground. I know that Locker is the man, but Polk needs the rock, constantly. And not out of the zone-read. I hate the zone-read play. It does not play to his strengths as a downhill runner. Get the dude in the “I” and let him do damage in lead plays.

Jesse Callier is impressive. I like what Johri Forgerson did for UW last year in limited action, but I really see Callier taking plays away from him. He’s explosive.

Mason Foster, Cort Dennison, and Nate Williams are all over the place. Those guys are heavy hitters and are always around the ball. Just what you’d expect out of them. Also, there is one thing that really stuck out defensively and that is the overall physicality of the team. BYU players were getting hit out there. They are definitely still icing themselves after that game.